Many perfectly rational people believe so, and there are innumerable accounts of cats who know when their owners are on the way home. In some cases, the cat’s finely tuned hearing picks up the first faint sound of a familiar car engine, but that does not explain the majority of incidents.

Certainly, over the years that I have treated big cats, I have become convinced they can detect my mood. They treat me completely differently if I am in an optimistic, cheerful frame of mind or if I am down, doubtful or preoccupied. Their heightened sense of smell may detect changes in the chemical makeup of our perspiration, but I could it be more than just their acute senses? As yet, science has no answer.